Leadership Reps: Power ranking the best Butch Jones cliches

By John Buhler | Oct 21, 2017

GAINESVILLE, FL - SEPTEMBER 16: Head Coach Butch Jones of the Tennessee Volunteers is seen on the sidelines during the second half of their game against the Florida Gators at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium on September 16, 2017 in Gainesville, Florida. (Photo by Scott Halleran/Getty Images) /

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KNOXVILLE, TN – SEPTEMBER 30: Tennessee Volunteers Head Coach Butch Jones shouts at the officials during the game between the Georgia Bulldogs and the Tennessee Volunteers on September 30, 2017, at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, TN. (Photo by Jeffrey Vest/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /

5. Team #…

HTB Team 121 inscribed on a gray trash can during the Volunteers’ Week 1 double-overtime victory over the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. Yes, this happened and we can’t believe that it happened.

How on Planet Earth was this motivational concept approved? Just a complete and utter lack of awareness by the Tennessee football program. To use a Jones cliché, it starts with Jones.

Okay, so here’s the premise. Since arriving in Knoxville in 2013, Jones likes to number his teams by the year of Tennessee football it corresponds to. So the 2017 Volunteers team is the 121st team in Tennessee football history, hence the Team 121 moniker.

What’s en vogue in college football is a celebratory prop that gets the team excited about defensive turnovers, special teams scores and whatnot. Georgia has golden spiked shoulder pads, Miami has gawdy ice/necklace, Texas A&M has a cane. You get the gist of that, right?

Well, Tennessee’s brilliant idea was to have a gray trash can with HTB Team 121 written on it. HTB apparently stands for “Hunt the Ball”. So when Tennessee forces a turnover, the defensive player gets to dunk the football in the HTB Team 121 trash can.

Social media has run wild with this botch job of an idea. Photoshop has allowed college football fans to have barrels, or gray trash cans, of fun with this poorly conceived prop idea. Amazingly, Jones did not understand why people were making fun of Tennessee for this. A silly top hat with HTB 121 could have worked, right? The trash jokes with this Team 121 concept are endless.

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